Websites that store online photo albums are easy to find. There are literally hundreds of websites that all do the same basic thing. Upload a photo, organize them into albums, and share them with friends. It makes for a great project which students or software enthusiasts might do on the side.

Due to the impacted nature of the online photo album space building one that stands out is an extremely ambitious feat. There’s only so many ways to skin this proverbial cat. It comes as an intriguing surprise then to find a new photo sharing site that’s bound to garner some attention. Yogile.

Yogile’s tagline is, “Easy photo sharing.” For the most part all photo sharing sites say that about themselves. In Yogile’s case however, they are being overwhelmingly humble. Using Yogile is like being in a roman bath where indentured servants come by making sure you have enough grapes. Few get to experience the height of luxury afforded by this level of extravagance. It’s a welcome indulgence to venture through its lavish and well crafted halls.

Instead of having to spend hundreds of years oppressing the downtrodden, registration for Yogile consists of submitting an email and a password. Here you have the option to make your album private or public. If private, you can provide a separate password for that album. Once logged in the basic options are as expected. You create albums, upload photos, adding titles and descriptions along the way. Each new album can be private or public and gets its own unique url.

Where I really start to like Yogile is how readily it allows you to share albums with friends. It works like this. The url assigned to each album comes with an email address.

So if the url is was: yogile.com/slapstart

the email address is was: slapstart@yogile.com

Album owners can give anyone they like the ability to upload photos by giving them the email address. People only need to send an email with a photo attached and it will be uploaded to the album. If it’s a private album then they just include the password in the subject or message of the email. By default Yogile auto-selects a random url/email label, but it’s easily customized.

So let’s say you’re having a toga party and all your friends are dressed up in sheets, foliage, and sandals. Many people will take pictures. At the end of the party one person can create an album, click the share button, and send to everyone. The email contains brief instructions and the password if there is one. Those who receive the access info can then email their pictures which will be included in the online album. Album owners can arrange the photos, change the titles- they have full control of the album.

A public profile picture of Berlin

When viewing albums there are a few options including a slideshow and ability to download the original file. Amongst other things, Yogile’s public albums are a decent place to look for new wallpapers. Public albums can be shared by anyone, which means anyone can contribute to them. Album owners can choose to let people send photos directly to their album, or preview them first before they’re posted.

The two big limitations with photo sharing sites are bandwidth and server space. Picture files are large and take up a lot of resources to store and transfer. Yogile allots each account with up to 100mb of photos, per month. This includes all photos uploaded and approved by the album’s owner, regardless of who sent them. To lift this limit and have unlimited access is a nominal $25 per year. To contrast, in Roman times a pound of lavender would run you a month’s wages.

It’s hard to stand out with so many websites vying for you pictures. Yogile makes a clean break from the pack and does indeed, provide easy photo sharing.